


a change of paths

by FeatheredShadow



Category: The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 11:04:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7637632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeatheredShadow/pseuds/FeatheredShadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are multiple paths history could have taken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a change of paths

**1511.**

Little Prince Henry does not die when he is seven weeks old, but rather when he is twenty-seven years old, married yet childless, leaving his sister Mary only heiress to the throne, and betrothed to the Dauphin of France. (Not yet married. Her fragile health has held back the marriage two times already.)

The betrothal is called off, as it would not be fit for a Queen regnant of England to have for husband the future King of France. The English people is too defensive of its independence for that, and Spain would not allow it.

France won’t accept Don Philippe as future King of England either. Katherine of Aragon would have pushed for it, but she is already dead, and Henry VIII is the one to decide.

The second son of Francis of Valois is chosen, but has to relish his rights to the French crown. Nothing is supposed to go wrong.

England has its first Queen regnant in 1555.

 

**1515.**

Mary Tudor is already pregnant when her failing husband, Louis XII of France, dies. Francis de Valois won’t let her elope in secret with her lover, and she remains in confinement until the birth.

A girl is born.

The Salic Law remains and Francis still becomes King.

Mary still marries Charles Brandon, first Duke of Suffolk, but publicly this time. It is hardly proper for the mother of a Daughter of France, but still better than to be remarried to another king. Little Frances has to stay at the French court to be educated properly, while the Dowager Queen goes back to her brother’s kingdom.

Life goes on.

 

**1529.**

The Blackfriars trial gives Henry VIII satisfaction: Katherine of Aragon is sent to a nunnery, but his daughter – _the pearl of his world_ , his precious Mary – remains a Princess and heiress to the throne, until a boy comes along. He weds Anne Boleyn in the following months, she who never ceased to promise him _heirs in the image of their father_.

It is done a year later, when Prince Henry is born, followed two years after by Princess Elizabeth.

Never is the break from Rome consummated, but the Church of England is still reformatted.

 

**1533.**

Anne Boleyn dies giving birth to a daughter, Princess Elizabeth.

A foreign wedding will be celebrated, later, once the period of mourning is over.

(Mary is reinstituted to the succession, if only because Henry has gotten careful, all of a sudden. The girl is old enough to bear children, after all.)

 

_1533._

Anne Boleyn gives birth to a stillborn daughter. Puerperal fever leaves her unable to conceive again, despite numerous attempts, and finally sent off to a nunnery. Princess Mary is reinstituted to the succession. Katherine of Aragon dies in The More. A French Princess has to be picked, to ensure the succession, but only the girls live to adulthood.

 

**1534.**

Ane Boleyn gives birth to a boy, Prince Henry. Another follows two years later, Prince Edward. Henry VIII is content, to say the least, and is inclined to reinstitute his eldest daughter to the succession – last in line, but she bent the knee easily enough, once her little brother was born. He will give her a good marriage, though less splendid than of Elizabeth’s, for whom nothing less than a French one will be accepted.

(Neither Henry nor Edward will live long enough to see their adults days. Elizabeth is at the French court, biding her time, and Mary is far away, in Bavaria.)

(Margaret Tudor sees her son on the English throne.)

 

**1536.**

A boy is born. He does not survive his seventh week (a prince for a prince) but his mother does, despite puerperal fever.

The price of the Spanish alliance is high, but not so that Henry will refuse it.

 

_1536._

Henry VIII dies from his jousting accident. Chaos arises and the country falls into a bloody civil war.

The Scots invade the country, supported – as always – by the French.

A Spanish army arrives – _for the defense of Princess Mary, the blood of the Holy Emperor_.

England turns into a proxy battlefield for the French and the Spanish, and the English nobility, barely grown again from the War of the Roses, is purged anew.

By 1538, a compromise is found: James V of Scotland will sit on the throne of England and takes his cousin, Princess Mary, as queen, uniting both kingdoms.

(Little Elizabeth is kept alive, but her closest relatives aren’t.)

 

**1537.**

Jane Seymour still dies of puerperal fever, and her boy soon follows her. The King has to remarry, with a foreign, never-accounted for woman, Anne of Cleves, whom he likes very much when he first met her.

He only has two bastards daughters when death comes knocking around.

(There is no Spanish wedding this time, not even a French one. England looks to the North, to the East, and finally picks Scotland – better the devil you know. Better to stay in _family_.)

 

**1541.**

Katherine Howard gives birth to a boy who looks nothing like a Tudor, or even a Plantagenet.

Prince Edward remains the only legitimate heir.

(The Lady Mary is shipped off to France and the Lady Elizabeth to Sweden.)

(It makes for an awkward situation when King Edward VI dies without issue at age forty-four, despite two weddings.)

(James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England.)

 

**1544.**

Catherine Parr gets pregnant.

Prince Edward dies not long before she gives birth to a highly premature child, who doesn’t survive.

Henry VIII starts to think his kingdom is cursed.

(His kingdom isn’t. _He_ , on the other hand, has cast aside two women who loved him intensely, and entertained the thought of permanently getting rid of his daughters.)

(Mary sits on the throne in 1547, for ten years, with a miscarriage and two stillborn children as heirs. Elizabeth is groomed as future Queen of England as early as 1553.)

 

**1553.**

Edward VI survives his illness and marries off his eldest sister to a Spanish noble, much to her dismay. Elizabeth follows two years later, with a Swedish noble.

His son dies before his time but his youngest daughter marries James VI of Scotland.

The two kingdoms are united.

 

**1554.**

Mary gives birth to a boy – another Prince Edward for the kingdom. The pregnancy is difficult, the birth is dangerous, but she survives, and so does her son.

Elizabeth is married to a Spanish noble and shipped off to the continent.

(The boy is murdered following the death of his mother and James VI of Scotland still becomes James I of England.)

 

**1558.**

Mary I dies without issue and Elizabeth sits on the throne.

She marries Francis, Duke of Anjou, but only girls live to their adult days. (Tudor girls are stronger than the boys, apparently).

The eldest one becomes Queen at the death of her mother and marries her distant cousin, James VI of Scotland.

 

**1603.**

No matter the path his English relatives walked on, James VI of Scotland always sits on the united throne of England and Scotland.


End file.
